Sakura was starting to get a bit annoyed. Kakashi wouldn't let their pace change from a smooth, casual walk – the pace of a traveler who doesn't have anywhere specific in mind as their destination. To ease her boredom slightly, she began testing to see how much chakra she could push out before she started to lose control of it – which was when Kakashi would notice what she was doing and give her a quick pointed glare before continuing with his easy gait, hands behind his head as if he had not a care in the world.

It was almost the end of the first day when Sakura noticed something disturbing. They'd just walked past a house she was sure they'd gone past that morning. "Kakashi-san. . . ?" she whispered, hesitantly. If Kakashi had known about this the entire time, it'd make sense that he'd had them walking so slowly. He would have wanted to measure how powerful the person in charge of the genjutsu was. Sakura glanced around again. If they could make it last this long before the scenery started to repeat itself, they were extremely good. Biting her lip, Sakura pushed out a bit of her chakra again, this time using it to search for their stalker.

"Sakura, I want you to stay here while I scout out the road ahead. Why don't you get yourself a drink while I'm gone?" Kakashi suggested off-handedly.

Sakura nodded, smiling as if this was a perfectly normal suggesting. Inside though, her stomach was doing flip-flops. If Kakashi meant what it sounded like he meant, then. . . . Sakura shook her head as she reached into the pack Kakashi'd left behind for a water bottle. For someone to be going through so much trouble to capture them, they'd probably be after her. Kakashi was easy enough to get other ways.

The attack came as she was just replacing closing the water bottle. Her sense of smell detected the presence coming towards her first, latching onto the smell of another's blood and nearly destroying her tentative control of the demon. Then she heard a whistling noise of a kunai and ducked instinctively. Almost immediately the imaginary handcuffs placed on the demon side of her broke and it raced out to take control, shoving Inner Sakura aside with no effort.

The person who'd thrown the kunai stopped a few yards away from her, far enough to avoid being scorched by the enormous amounts of chakra very nearly exploding from the twelve-year-old's body. He smirked, lifting his sword off his shoulder. Even if she was a demon, there was no way she could keep up this sort of chakra – especially once Samehada started to absorb it all.

Sakura took a deep breath, staggering back a few steps as she struggled to restore her control enough to think out her actions. There was something weird about that sword the guy was resting on.

'Hey – don't do anything stupid,' Sakura hissed at the demon. It glared back at her. 'Don't look at me that way! I want to live you know, and not as this guy's pet demon. So keep my chakra under control or you won't last long. Try to stay away from that sword too, if you can.'

The demon didn't seem happy about it, but with a snarl that seemed a bit out of place on her face, the chakra receded back into a thin layer just above her skin. Green eyes darted about, searching for Kakashi, but found nothing.

"Done already? That was a pretty impressive display, but if you can only keep it up for that long, there's no point in fighting back. You'll just get hurt more," Kisame taunted, stepping closer to her. Itachi shouldn't have been worried about this mission. Even that Uzumaki brat was better equipped to fight than this kid.

"Shut up Kisame. They want her alive, and if you use that thing on her too much, there's no way that'll happen," snapped a woman of about thirty as she appeared next to the Akatsuki member. Her hitai-ate marked her as a missing-nin from the sand. Sakura guessed that she was probably the one to do the genjutsu. Kisame didn't seem the type to deal with such subtle tactics.

"I've been here longer than you – I know what I'm doing Kaoru-san," grumbled Kisame. Of all the people he had to get paired up with, it just had to be their newest member, Yuki Kaoru. He hit the ground a few times with his sword, looking bored. "If you're so smart though, why don't you capture her? That's the way "Itachi-sama" would go about things."

Kaoru glared at her partner and strode over to where Sakura was, trying to ignore the girl's eyes on her. "I will then. While I'm at it, why don't you go fight Hatake Kakashi. He's not stupid – he's watching us from somewhere."

Sakura blinked as Kisame disappeared, presumable to go kill Kakashi, and Kaoru turned to her. The woman didn't seem nearly as threatening suddenly. In fact, maybe it was a good thing that this all happened. Really, she shouldn't have made the assumption that Akatsuki was a bad organization to get mixed up in just because of a few unruly members. . . . The demon growled a bit as it fell to the back of Sakura's mind once more.

"You're Sakura-chan, right?" asked Kaoru with a smile.

Sakura nodded, ignoring the sounds of yelling in the background. It seemed like Kakashi was probably fighting by now. He'd win, so that was all right.

Kaoru's smile widened some as she sat down, bringing Sakura with her. "My name's Yuki Kaoru. You can call me Yuki-chan if you want."

Kaoru no longer looked like the missing-nin Sakura'd seen a few minutes ago. She was now another twelve-year-old sitting and talking with Sakura. Sakura blushed and looked away. For some reason she felt like her old self – the one that had been afraid of everyone and everything. Something in her mind whispered that this wasn't right – she should be helping Kakashi so that she could go save – "Sasuke-kun!"

Kaoru glanced over in surprise at her new friend. "Sasuke-kun? Is he a guy you like?"

Sakura nodded, the blush deepening. "Kakashi-sensei, I mean, Kakashi-san and I are traveling to go get him back from Orochimaru. So please – you have to let us go. Naruto's already after him, but I don't know if that's enough and . . . I don't want either of them to die."

Kaoru stood, brushing away the illusion of her younger self, and walked over to where Kisame and Kakashi were standing in a deadlock. "Oi – Kisame! We're leaving. Samehaha can have some more of this old man's chakra next time we stop by. Right now we've got to go meet up with Itachi-sama."

Glaring, Kisame nodded. Kaoru was in charge of this mission, not him. If she wanted to play nice to get the brat, he'd let her. He wouldn't be the one getting killed if things didn't work out.

"Sakura-chan, I'll let you go for now, all right? I understand how important your first love can be, and it sounds like this Sasuke-kun could be it. But you'll come back to talk to me some other time, right?" Kaoru smiled. "Maybe after you've saved him and made him realize just how important you are to him?"

Sakura beamed up at the missing-nin. She couldn't believe that someone Kakashi had said would want to use her for her power would be so understanding of her predicament. "Of course Yuki-chan!"

"Good luck Sakura-chan! I hope you get him back – Orochimaru wasn't a very nice man. That's why we aren't at all unhappy that he left our organization." With that, the two S-class criminals disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sakura's eyes very nearly glowed with excitement. Any doubts as to her ability to retrieve Sasuke were gone. She turned to Kakashi, bouncing slightly. "Hey, Kakashi-san. . . ?"

He was gone. Where he'd been standing, there was only a note.

Go ahead and save the Uchiha brat. When you're done, we'll bring back the old man. As far as Kaoru-san's life. . . . You'll decided whether or not she lives later. Remember, she's counting on you.

Sakura stared at the note. Kisame had to have left it. She glanced about quickly, trying to figure out where the three had disappeared to, but could find nothing. Glowing now for an entirely different reason, a furious Sakura dashed off to get Sasuke. People's lives were resting on her actions now. She couldn't afford to mess up.